Pool A
New Zealand, France, Tonga, Canada, Japan
Pool B
Argentina, England, Scotland, Georgia, Romania
Pool C
Australia, Ireland, Italy, Russia, United States
Pool D
South Africa, Wales, Fiji, Manu Samoa, Namibia
Looks like its a given that the hosts NZ will sweep all before them, but then again it always seems like this before a rugby World Cup! Mind you there have been some odd results this year which may lead to some upsets.
Hosts have won twice in the six tournaments - Australia and South Africa. Both of these teams have won the tournament twice. England NZ have won one each.
Great to see Argentina rise to take third place last time out.
Full fixture list and times here
http://www.itv.com/rugbyworldcup/2011/matches/
PS
My money is on (the 2019 hosts), Japan. Which is why I am poor.
Comments
NZ for me, they are on home turf, SA are rebuilding, Australia don't have the pack and England/Ireland and France a bit too inconsistent.
Looks like some great games coming up. I may have to miss my first Charlton home game in about 10 years :-)
Canada v Japan
Georgia v Romania
Russia v United States
Manu Somoa v Namibia
Rugbytastic !
90-1 that Japan get through qualifying.
20-1 for Tonga
We stand a chance, but what makes this tournament interesting is that other than NZ (who are perennial favourites) there are no clear cut favourites.
The fallacy is that the All Blacks have bottled the last few RWCs, but the reason for their defeat has usually been that they play one way which is to attack and attack and attack and win by pushing their opponents into the turf and giving them a good rucking over in the process. In the last RWC they should have beaten France easily. In the QFs, they had France on the goal-line and stuck in their 22 for eons, but heroic French defence and the failure to chuck the ball back to Dan Carter for a few easy penalties let France off the hook. Had the ABs won that match they would have been up against an average English side who just happened to be better than an average France side, so it was that they missed a decent run to the final. SA were not that good and relied on the boot of the peroxide haired Percy Montgomery.
Tonga NZ will be a cracking opener, on now
The Haka's brilliant-wild eyes, tongues out.
Charlton should adopt its own Haka to scare the roughty, toughty teams who visit The Valley.
spectacular opening ceremonmy and a mediocre first game. N Z had their foot on the brake so as not to embarass Tonga with a cricket score. Something must be done by way of rule/law amendments to stop the situation whereby a defending team can engender scrum after scrum after scrum by offending within metres of their own line. A penalty try after the first offence followed by a yellow card would do it, but, what referee is going to have the grit to so penalise N Z on their own turf.
England need to come out flying against Argentina who are badly undercooked having played only a handful of games this year. Argentina will soon be joining the SA/Oz/NZ tri nations tournament thereby increasing the overall standard of the world game
The referee can award a penalty try if a team persistently offends, with the conversion being in front of the posts. If an individual player pulls down the ruck too often or kills the ball they can be sin-binned to boot.
Referees as in football tend to get tournament guidelines, but as you say giving a penalty try against NZ at home in the WC would be a career limiting move for most referees.
England - Argentina on ITV tomorrow from 9AM.
France by 30 or so - Japan game starts at 7am
Argentina will be no push over and England are without Cueto and Moody.
The match kicks off at 9.30 AM.
England's team:
Could easily have been level 15 mins into second half.
Had so much possession and territory. Great effort.
Tough game now for England